Parkland School Shooter Nikolas Cruz Cries In Court After Colored Pencils Get Taken Away
According to the New York Post, Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz was given colored pencils and a coloring book by his lawyers to soothe him after he burst into tears in court Wednesday.
However, after being challenged by prosecutors, his little drawing materials were taken away from him, causing him to sob even harder, according to the news site citing CBS 12.
The 23-year-old appeared in Fort Lauderdale court on charges that he beat a prison guard. During court, he began weeping after potential jurors cried at the sight of him, according to tweets from Christina Boomer Vazquez, a journalist covering the trial. That’s when a woman who appeared to be from Cruz’s defense team then handed him part of a Pokemon coloring book along with the colored pencils to calm him, which prompted a legal clash.
“We’re objecting to that, your honor. We believe that that is something that they’re doing so that the jury perceives that you know, he’s a child, that he has some kind of his mentality is somehow challenged, we think that’s inappropriate and we object,” a prosecutor said, according to the Post.
The judge ultimately ordered that every thing be taken away from Cruz.
The [alleged] shooter, who confessed to killing 17 and wounding 17 others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February 2018, was allegedly caught on camera attacking a prison guard eight months after he was arrested. He will appear in court again for a pretrial hearing Thursday.
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